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Compound Evidence InstituteEvidence synthesis · established 2023Graded assessments of compounds, trials, methods and supply
Document set current to 30 July 2026
Evidence synthesis · §4

PT-141 (bremelanotide) in hypoactive sexual desire and erectile dysfunction: effect on the anchor… — summary of findings

Outcome-by-outcome summary with effect, certainty and the reason for each downgrade.

Document identifier
CEI-ES-069/4
Series
Evidence synthesis
Version
2.1
Published
04 Feb 2026
Last reviewed
04 Feb 2026
Next review
04 Aug 2027
Identifier
10.71829/cei.syn.69
Certainty
Moderate
Cycle
2026 Q1
Review type
Intervention review
Search executed
16 Oct 2025

Templated review frame. This review question was generated by crossing an indication with a compound for which contributing trials exist. Its prose frame is templated and is shared with other questions of the same shape. Its included studies, its summary of findings and its certainty rating are computed from the underlying records and are not templated. The Institute publishes these questions because the alternative is to leave a question the document set can answer unanswered, and it labels them because the alternative is to present a templated frame as an authored one.

§4Summary of findings

§4.1Summary of findings

Table 7. Summary of findings for PT-141 (bremelanotide) in hypoactive sexual desire and erectile dysfunction: effect on….

OutcomeParticipants (studies)Effect as reportedCertaintyReason for downgrade
Female Sexual Function Index desire domainThe outcome the Institute designates as anchor for this indication.1,256 (2)A statistically significant but numerically small improvement in desire and distress scoresModeratepublication bias
Discontinuation for adverse eventsReported as a summary-of-findings row rather than in a tolerability annex, following a public submission.1,033 (2)Reported per contributing trial; see the included-studies tableModerateindirectness
Serious adverse eventsEvent counts are low; the estimate is imprecise by construction.1,040 (2)Reported per contributing trial; see the included-studies tableLowrisk of bias, publication bias
Any adverse eventAscertained by spontaneous report in the contributing trials.1,086 (1)Reported per contributing trial; see the included-studies tableLowrisk of bias, publication bias
Female Sexual Distress Scale item 13A secondary outcome for this indication. Its hierarchical position within each contributing trial is recorded on that trial's abstract where the Institute holds it.849 (1)Reported as a secondary outcome in a subset of contributing trialsLowrisk of bias, indirectness
International Index of Erectile FunctionA secondary outcome for this indication. Its hierarchical position within each contributing trial is recorded on that trial's abstract where the Institute holds it.709 (1)Reported as a secondary outcome in a subset of contributing trialsLowrisk of bias, publication bias
Certainty ratings describe confidence in the effect estimate for the stated outcome. They are not recommendations and do not transfer between outcomes.

§4.2Forest plot

Contributing estimatesPoint estimates with confidence intervals for each contributing study, plotted against the line of no effect.0.751Ratio measure, log scale (1 = no effect)Contributing studyEstimate (95 % CI)RECONNECT-3012019 · n=6260.75 (0.62 to 0.87)RECONNECT-3022019 · n=6300.87 (0.65 to 1.09)Pooled estimate0.80 (0.71 to 0.91)
Study estimatePooled estimate
Figure 1. Illustrative. Contributing estimates plotted against the line of no effect. The point estimates and intervals are the Institute's standardised representation of the contributing evidence on a common ratio scale, generated deterministically from the record identifiers; they are not the published estimates, which appear in their own units in the included-studies table and on each trial abstract. The figure is published to convey the dispersion of the evidence base, not to supply a number.

§4.3Certainty assessment for the anchor outcome

Certainty assessment by domainDowngrading decision recorded for each certainty domain.Certainty domainNo concernSeriousVery seriousEffect on ratingRisk of biasno downgradeInconsistencyno downgradeIndirectnessno downgradeImprecisionno downgradePublication biasdowngrade one levelTotal downgrading: 1 levelModerate certainty
Figure 2. Domain-by-domain certainty assessment for the anchor outcome of this review.

Table 8. Reasoning recorded against each certainty domain for the anchor outcome.

DomainRatingReasoning
Risk of biasNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
InconsistencyNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
IndirectnessNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
ImprecisionNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
Publication biasSeriousThe evidence base is small, recent and wholly sponsor-generated.
Overall: Moderate certainty. The true effect is likely to be close to the estimate, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Further research is likely to have an important impact on confidence in the estimate.

References cited on this page

References are numbered in order of first citation in this document. Each superscript in the text links to its entry below.

  1. Clayton AH, Althof SE, Kingsberg S, DeRogatis LR, Kroll R, Goldstein I, Kaminetsky J, Spana C, Lucas J, Jordan R, Portman DJ. Bremelanotide for female sexual dysfunctions in premenopausal women: a randomized, placebo-controlled dose-finding trial. Women’s Health 2016;12(3):325–337. doi:10.2217/whe-2016-0018 · PMID 27638896
  2. D’Hondt M, Bracke N, Taevernier L, Gevaert B, Verbeke F, Wynendaele E, De Spiegeleer B. Related impurities in peptide medicines. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 2014;101:2–30. doi:10.1016/j.jpba.2014.06.012 · PMID 25044089

Identifiers are reproduced only where the Institute holds them. Where a digital object identifier or PubMed identifier is not shown, the Institute has recorded the journal and year and has not constructed an identifier.

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